<p>Well, there’s these two really smart Asian kids a boy and a girl battling for it, and no one knows their GPA’s because they’re pretty secretive about them, and they have really high ones because they took a bunch of community college classes. All the other intelligent people in my grade gave up on getting valedictorian because we have no chance against those two Asian kids.</p>
<p>It’s pretty much between me and three other Asian girls (I’m an Indian guy)…all of us will have about 14 APs by the time we graduate…we all have 4.0s…it’s ridiculously competitive right now. </p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC</p>
<p>I went to one of the top schools in CA…and we didn’t even have one. Out of 650-700 or so graduating students per class, there were so many students with astronomical GPAs that I guess it felt unfair to pick one. Sigh.</p>
<p>It’s unnecessarily competitive. I’m tied for first with one of my friends out of 800+ and I think it’s kind of stupid…</p>
<p>Actually there are 14 valedictorians so it’s really not a big deal. Plus, you don’t know until after apps anyways so people freak out over it for no reason.</p>
<p>There are four of us who are I guess seriously competing for first. We’re all friends with each other. Then there’s a lot of people who are complete try-hards that worry about being ranked high and whatever and being val even though it’ll be too late for apps. It’s quite irritating.</p>
<p>This past year (class of 2012), it was pretty decisive who it was going to be. However in 2011 there was sort of a three-way race for it. On the surface, none of them seemed to take it very seriously. Really academics aren’t usually very competitive at my school.</p>
<p>My school is pretty competitive. Out of a pool of ~850 students, about 50 or 60 have perfect 4.0s, and about 15-20 of those have perfect 5.0s (weighted). There isn’t grade inflation; people actually try that hard.</p>
<p>Not competitive in the slightest. People move in and out every year (only about 25% of our graduating class was here their freshman year) so the possibility of someone coming in and taking the valedictorian spot is there.</p>
<p>My school stopped ranking to increase college acceptance rates… 1/3 of the class qualified for NHS, etc. The faculty picked 2 speakers but there wasn’t any official valedictorian. One of our speakers, who was also class president, went to Harvard and now works for Microsoft.</p>
<p>I went to a top-ranked high school in southern California, and while the school itself was competitive, there wasn’t a competition to be the valedictorian. We weren’t officially ranked, and everybody who got a 4.0 was a valedictorian, so there were several vals each year.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is sometimes it isn’t. At my school, we have class sizes of about 50 or 60 and everyone takes mostly the same classes and nothing is weighted. So, you need to get a 4.0 to be val. For example, the first year there was one 4.0, the second one 3.96, the third has two people tied, going into senior year, with 4.0 but one is a year above in math so they get the tiebreaker. The rising juniors only have one 4.0 still in a class of 60, they suck. My class has about 10-15 4.0’s including myself, though being two years ahead in math should give me the tiebreaker.</p>
<p>So, it really depends on the class.</p>
<p>I am a freshman, but I already have that goal in mind. Last year’s valedictorian was competitive and had a 5.375 weighted GPA (4=normal A, 5=honor’s A, 6=AP A. + and - dont hurt or help your GPA.) There are a few required standard classes so that can really bring your GPA down…</p>
<p>But, I think I have a real good chance to be valedictorian of my class. I got straight A’s last year, and was 1 of maybe 20-30 freshmen who were in an AP class (freshmen dont really take APs at my school.) and I knew a lot of kids, non of which got straight A’s that I know of. But there was probably a few others who did. And then next year (sophomore year) I’ll be in hopefully 3-4 AP courses (it might AP Physics AB, AP Calc B, AP Pysch, or AP Physics AB and BC, AP Calc B and C. Not real sure about how its going to work out). And then after that I’ll have virtually no standard classes. It also helps that there is no known genius in my class (there was in last year’s class and the class above me however), if not valedictorian, I’ll definitely be in the 3 if I keep my act together.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, my current GPA is 4.875/6.0 (weighted), and I plan on taking 13-15 APs, I took one already (as a freshman) and plan to take a couple every year. Most honor kids take AP courses, if you’re in Honors english, you definitely take at least 3-4 APs before graduating at my school (theres a handful of honor kids who dont though.).</p>
<p>The whole weighted GPA combined with class ranking has some serious flaws. Consider the school with +1 for honors and +2 for AP classes. You have 3 students at the end of Junior year with the same unweighted GPA, two with the same weighted. All took the same set of academic classes, got straight A’s. One also took electives throughout - electives graded at the standard level. That student has a lower GPA, and is not in the running. This system discourages students from branching out with their electives, because if one of the top 2 takes an elective, they give that #1 ranking away.</p>
<p>If you were an AdCom, which student would you prefer? I would want the one that’s not even in the running! 30 years ago the HS I attended eliminated class ranking, because it makes no sense.</p>
<p>At my high school everyone who has a 4.0 unweighted is valedvictorian, so we have at least 20 every year. :(</p>
<p>“My school is pretty competitive. Out of a pool of ~850 students, about 50 or 60 have perfect 4.0s, and about 15-20 of those have perfect 5.0s (weighted). There isn’t grade inflation; people actually try that hard.”</p>
<p>@emberjed</p>
<p>Your school isn’t competitive if 50-60 students have a 4.0, sorry. Unless you go to a private school/magnet school. And if 1 out of 14 kids getting a perfect 4.0 isn’t grade inflation…</p>
<p>I go to one of the best public schools in the state. We have 900+ students; 10ish get 4.0’s.</p>
<p>Well I agree in some sense about how electives are discouraged for students in the running for valedictorian… but I think thats why colleges want a well rounded student. The kids at my school who were valedictory/top of their class are in clubs and sports and do 60+ hours of volenteering which I think makes up for the lack of electives. I think the problem is that most electives are bs classes, people dont take arts and crafts I at my school because they want to learn more about it, its because they want an easy class where they can talk to their friends and work on easy stuff. If electives were more serious then they could be introduced at levels besides standard (at my school electives can be honors and AP, but you first need standard prerequisites to do them). I also dont like the unweighted GPA valedictorian thing–</p>
<p>even if the school doesnt offer AP/honors or something, kids who take the generally harder classes (physics etc) will be compared to students who took generally easier classes. Even if its flawed, I think weighted is the way to go.</p>
<p>I think it would be a much better system if they looked at students as a whole. The smartest, most well rounded student gets to be Valedictorian. ie the student who got straight A’s and took rigorous classes and was dedicated to a few clubs and was a good athlete or something, or just the clubs the best most rounded student (not necessarily a good athlete because some cant do sports due to health and money issues.). I think that would be much more fair… but, I probably wouldnt be valedictorian if thats how it went.</p>
<p>Also my school 3000+ students and 800+ kids in my class.</p>
<p>Valedictorian is going to be the registered genius attending my school 
He’s taking extra classes and he’s been excused from some art credits.
Which is irritating.
However at the moment about 40 kids are tied for 2+3 which will stay pretty steady until AP classes start (11th grade) I think the competition will become between about 10 people for 2 place</p>
<p>It’s not easy, but it’s not too competitive either. People care more about being in the top 10 than going for valedictorian.</p>
<p>That moment when a thread you started becomes one of CC’s featured discussions. :)</p>
<p>It’s not easy, but it’s not too competitive either. People care more about being in the top 10 than going for valedictorian. We have a weighted 6.0 scale. So if one took an honors/AP class, a 100 would be a 6.0, a 99 would be a 5.9, a 98 would be a 5.8 and so on. If one took a level class, a 100 would be a 5.0, and it goes down just like the honors/AP scale. But it is impossible to have a 6.0 GPA, because you are required to take level classes. We need 1 P.E. credit, 1 Fine Art credit, 2 Foreign Language credits (which can be honors credits), and 5.5 credits of electives. However, that is the recommended plan and in the distinguished plan, everything is the same except we need 3 Foreign Language credits and 4.5 elective credits.</p>
<p>Also, there are 380 kids in my school.</p>
<p>Sorry, finishing up my post.</p>
<p>Haha my high school is so cutththroat and intense…and about 50 percent of the class has perfect straight A’s. Because it’s incredibly hard to distinguish students grades wise, there is no valedictorian at my school.</p>